The revised lightweight racer, which is powered by a Mazda-based engine developed by Elan Motorsports Technologies, completed its first laps at Road Atlanta on Wednesday and Thursday in the hands of Johnny O'Connell and Andy Meyrick. The team is now targeting a race finish for the car, which will run in the LMP1 class, in the opening round of the American Le Mans Series.

Dave Price, team manager of Don Panoz's DeltaWing Racing Cars squad, said: “Johnny went first because he had driven the car before [in testing last October] and then Andy had a go,” said David Price, team manager of Don Panoz's DeltaWing Racing Cars squad. “Everything was fine, except a few of the new-car issues that you would expect.

“It was really a systems check and about tuning the engine out on the track, because it had only previously run on the dyno.”

Price said there were no issues with the new tires from Bridgestone, which have replaced the Michelins on which the Nissan-powered version of the experimental car ran last year.

Price suggested that finishing the race at Sebring, when Olivier Pla will join Meyrick in the car, was a realistic aspiration.

“We want to run reliably, finish the race and show a bit of performance,” he said. “We have set no targets beyond that, because we know we ain't gonna win it.

“I think a finish is realistic. We know the car and the gearbox are the same that finished Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta last year [the car's second outing after the 24 Hours of Le Mans]; and the engine has done quite a lot of running on the test bench.”

Panoz, the managing partner in the Project 56 group that brought Ben Bowlby's DeltaWing design to the race track, has now assumed full control of the program following Nissan's withdrawal. He plans to race the car in eight of the 10 ALMS races this season.